Healthy eating at the Marie Trust

Before working in homelessness, I worked at The Ubiquitous Chip, this was a fantastic opportunity to develop my skills as a chef. I've worked with many chefs in the industry from all over the world this has given me not only culinary skills but also first-hand experience in teaching methods which are applied at The Marie Trust.  

With the amazing help of our supported volunteers we provide healthy and nutritious meals which meet the Healthy Living Plus Award standards. We create meals from scratch and use a varied amount of different foods to create different menus for our Not for Profit Cafe. This gets people talking about different ideas and allows scope for the imagination and creativity. 

Having the Training Kitchen enables volunteers to engage in programs at their own skill level and limits. We try to create a relaxed stress-free environment where everyone is part of the team and we all get involved with chopping, cooking, cleaning, temperature and recording.

Our volunteers begin at different levels. Firstly, we teach them chopping skills and kitchen hygiene and practice. Then when they are more confident, they can move onto making soup or homemade hearty meals. 

It is a great experience working in the kitchen, the volunteers learn not only kitchen skills but also skills for life where they learn budgeting skills through making food from scratch they learn the nutritional value and how much more they can save in their budget from cooking this way. They also build friendships, learn about teamwork and develop a support network within the team.